Australia v England: Ashes second Test, day two – live

Ben Stokes is still bullish but the omens suggests pink-ball Test could be a nightmare on Vulture Street My first day at the Gabba was 23 years ago, half a lifetime having passed since I slept on my brother’s sofa across the river and followed the Ashes tour as a backpacker. The coin went up, Nasser Hussain decided to have a bowl, and Steve Waugh’s Australians cashed in on generosity. Having not returned until 2017‑18, and then covered the Covid tour four years later, the Sydney finale in 2003 remains the only time I have seen England win a…

Like the narco-state, a ‘scam state’ refers to countries where an illicit industry has dug its tentacles deep into institutions and transformed the economy For days before the explosions began, the business park had been emptying out. When the bombs went off, they took down empty office blocks and demolished echoing, multi-cuisine food halls. Dynamite toppled a four-storey hospital, silent karaoke complexes, deserted gyms and dorm rooms. So came the end of KK Park, one of south-east Asia’s most infamous “scam centres”, press releases from Myanmar’s junta declared. The facility had held tens of thousands of people, forced to…

The UN office on drugs and crime said in a report the growth underscores Myanmar’s position as the world’s main known source of illicit opium Opium poppy cultivation in war-torn Myanmar has surged to its highest level in a decade, according to the UN, rising 17% in the past year as conflict and economic hardship push more farmers into the illicit trade. Poppy cultivation climbed to 53,100 hectares this year from 45,200 hectares in 2024, the UN office on drugs and crime (UNODC) said in a report, underlining Myanmar’s position as the world’s main known source of illicit opium…